Sidewalk tour photo journal has been revised and moved to my site Surfacemotion.com. Please use links below to access 2009 tour blog material.
Keith Johnson travels with two pieces of luggage that define him; a longboard -a road outfitted skateboard- and a guitar.
Stories and tips about; longboard skating, budget travel, country and blues music, storage, road dogging.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Mountains in the Mirror

Bus depot in Weed, Ca.

Sidewalk and hill in Weed, Ca.

6.28 Grueling bus ride so far. Absolutely full, not even one spare seat. Made it to Medford to the rest stop. I had a good banana muffin and not enough coffee to keep me awake, which is the right dose. Many things wrong. There is a kind of moldy smell, which could be certain passengers or the air system or maybe the bathroom, which smelled really bad and which could drift out over the whole bus. Many rude passengers, all right around me. A girl right behind me kept me awake with bouts of laughter, loud talking, and kicking my seat. A big guy next to me stuffed his bag on top of my guitar and changed his socks in the seat, leaning the feet into the aisle. The couple in front of me are watching episodes of "Friends" with Korean subtitles on a handheld and due to ear buds in both their ears, giggling loudly. The woman right next to me has her bags all over the floor so I cant put my feet anywhere but straight in front. She's sleeping, pretty much spilling onto my side. That's it for rude or annoying people next to and directly behind me. Further back, some woman is coughing repeatedly. Some guys in the back row were blasting ipods so loud the driver came back to tell them to lower it.

There was an unusual incident in southern Oregon. Right after Roseberg an old black guy asked to get off. He said "I wanna get off here." The driver said "you're in the middle of nowhere." And pitch dark too. But it didn't phase the old buzzard, he wanted to get off the bus, and did. Maybe he wanted to go to the bathroom, or maybe he wanted to walk. After a bit the driver got off to make sure he hadn't passed out under the wheels, then got back on and drove onward, lighter by one passenger.

I kept falling asleep in spite of the discomfort and noise. That worried me. There was probably not enough oxygen in the cabin to keep me awake. I woke up in front of Mt. Shasta. It was lit too strongly by the rising sun. I tried to get self portraits in the bus glass with the mountain behind.